Chief/pull plug on W/E nets

[Lee Borgersen]

    New chief pulls plug on walleye nets

By JENNIFER HAMILTON-MCCHARLES, The Nugget

Tuesday, August 18, 2015 4:35:55 EDT PM



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All fishing nets associated with the Nipissing First Nation commercial fishery will be removed from Lake Nipissing as of Saturday at noon.

Nipissing First Nation Chief Scott McLeod informed local fishermen today that the fishery is being closed this weekend, putting a stop to gill netting to ensure the health and long-term sustainability of Lake Nipissing and the walleye fishery.

“I have been speaking directly with fishers to inform them of the closure, to encourage compliance and to let them know that we are actively working to develop plans to mitigate the economic impact of our decision,” McLeod said Tuesday.

“This is not a decision that is taken lightly. We understand it directly affects the membership,” he said.

“As chief and council we're looking at ways to help mitigate the financial burden, such as offering retraining programs, job initiatives that would help offset their displacement. We're also looking to see if Employment Insurance benefits can be accessed.”

McLeod said Nipissing First Nation is dealing with complex issues created through historic treaties and there are a lot of legal issues.

“But we're moving in the right direction and getting community support.”

A special meeting of council was held Monday evening to discuss the closure.

“We met last night to discuss the recommendations from Nipissing First Nation''s Natural Resources Department. To maintain sustainable harvest levels we needed to take action and close the fishery for the season,” McLeod said.

He also stated that Nipissing First Nation is aware that some people may not respect council's decision, however the situation will be monitored through active patrols.

The closure will remain in effect until the end of the 2016 spring fisheries moratorium.

McLeod said removing Nipissing First Nation commercial nets is only one factor that affects the walleye population.

“But this is one we are directly responsible for,” he said. “By taking action on our own fishery it gives us more leverage and influence. We have to sit down and we have to work nation-to-nation and iron out problems and if that means stricter regulations on both parts (native and non native) then that is what we have to do.”

According to Nipissing First Nation, closing the fishery before Aug. 31 effectively reduces the season by more half – to just over three months from the seven months it was in the past.

McLeod said the recommendation has come up in the past, however it was bad timing with the election underway.

“Fish don't wait for politicians. The recommendations were there, but we basically have a new council with only three incumbents. Many had to be brought up to speed, but the Lake Nipissing fishery was one of the top three issues,” he said.

This isn't the first time NFN has amended its Fisheries Law.

In 2014, the community was informed gill netting would stop in October and wouldn't resume until spring when the recreational walleye fishing season opened. It was the first time the fishery was closed early.

Council has also implemented several regulations that came into effect in 2015 to include the elimination of spear fishing and gill netting during the spring spawn, reducing the number of nets from five panels to three, changing the minimum mesh size from 3.5 inches to 3.75 inches, reinstituting the fish hatchery on a small experimental scale, hiring fishermen to seed a barren spawning grounds and studying the impact over a number of years, withdrawing licenses from any crews using non-members as part of fishing crews and actively patrolling and confiscating all unmarked nets.

The Ministry of Natural Resources indicated in March 2014, the walleye fishery is in serious decline and is now only half of what it was in the 1980s, mainly due to the combined pressure of both the recreational and commercial fisheries.

As a result the ministry did away with a slot size restriction aimed at preserving spawning walleye 40 to 60 centimetres in size and instead introduced a new minimum size limit to protect walleye up to 46 centimetres. The move was aimed at safeguarding young fish that have not yet had a chance to spawn.